An Unfiltered Conversation with LA Band Starling

Starling is a Los Angeles-based band, consisting of four individualistic personas. Although rejecting a single music genre, the band has been described to fall under the indie or grunge marker. Sitting at my kitchen table on a sunlit afternoon, I found myself in awe of the bond between the foursome. Their relationship with each other bleeds through their music– constantly breaking barriers in terms of artistry and sound. For new listeners, their music may pose a mystery.

Their discography consists of hard-hitting songs with cascading lyrics that flow from one to the next, and others– slow enough to ease you into a trance. Needless to say, Starling is the kind of band that lingers with you after a song’s end– much like that afternoon did for me.

This is my exchange with them.

Grace: My name is Grace and I play bass.

Kasha: My name is Kasha. I sing, do live rhythm guitar and I’m the primary songwriter.

Gitai: I’m Gitai. I do guitar and back-up vocals.

Eric: I’m Eric and I play drums.

Kasha: And mixes!

Eric: That’s– yeah. My instrument is drums.

So, I know the band first began with Kasha and Grace. And then, later joined by Eric and Gitai. How did you all rekindle?

K: I’ve known Eric since my junior year of high school. And then I’ve known Grace since I was..?

Grace: 15, 14?

Kasha: Yeah. And, her and Gitai– they were like 4 or 5 years above us in high school. I didn’t meet Gitai until..?

Gitai: 2023.

Kasha: Yeah, 4th of July in 2023. It’s our “friendaversary,” and that was pretty much the start of our musical relationship.

Gitai: I knew Kasha existed but we had never met.

Grace: Gitai and I were classmates. I’ve known him since I was 14 probably.

Gitai: It’s interesting, because at this point we’re like family but being able to make those connections as an adult, it’s pretty sweet.

Grace: There’s a lot of overlapping history. Lore.

When you first decided to start the band, did you go into it knowing what sound you were going for, or is that still something you’re experimenting with?

Kasha: No. I would say no. I don’t think we knew, and I still don’t think we know.

Eric: Well you were very influenced by peers and the “newgaze” world.

Kasha: I was influenced by a lot of local stuff [here in Los Angeles].

Eric: Generally, very eclectic tastes–

Kasha: We’ve never set our sound to match a specific thing. It’s just been– oh the camera’s just zooming in on me…eh.

Grace: You used the word experimentation, and I feel like we're always just doing that. Seeing what feels best in the moment, rather than being like “this is the goal, we’re going to chase that.”

So would you guys consider your sound to fall under that “newgaze” label?

Eric shakes his head.

Kasha: No, I don’t think we ever really have. Newgaze and shoegaze have different meanings now than when they first became a thing. So, probably to the average listener or music enjoyer, yeah. But, that’s not what we would call ourselves.

So I want to talk about your first EP, 2324. It was filled with various sentiments and emotional vocals. Where did the majority of inspiration come from?

Kasha: That’s an interesting question. Some of the songs on that EP I started before we were really a band. Half of that is mostly me and Eric because he mixed all those songs. Aside from mixing, I would do the first part of production and then he would add a bunch of stuff.

He was in his own world. Honestly I asked him to take out probably half of what he initially added to each song. It was like a maximalist. But, it was like “let’s get this shit done and see where it goes.”

It was never inspired by one particular person. It’s always just been trying to put one foot in front of the other and finish what you’re starting, and get it out there, no matter what you feel about it.

Would you say after releasing 2324, your sound as a band was solidified or is that under experimentation?

Eric: I can’t really say that our sound has been solidified, at all. We have a handful of new songs set to come out. To me these next songs are, in a very dramatic way, the first Starling songs. The first Starling songs that we, collectively, had equal parts in almost every step of the way.

I think they reflect our character as a band, moreso, than the first EP and the album. 2324 was much more manic in a lot of ways and Forgive Me, is more..

Kasha: More focused?

Eric: Focused, but definitely…hmm…proof that we could step back from the sound of 2324. And now, it’s kind of a matter of getting comfortable in the “in-between.”

So transitioning into Forgive Me, – what were some of the more prevalent themes you all wanted to highlight in the making of that album?

Eric: I wanted strings.

Kasha: Yeah, I wanted strings too. But, wait, you said themes?

I’ll answer from a lyric point of view. I was writing a lot of those at a time where I felt like a lot of my friends were losing loved ones. People really young were passing. I think something like that makes you reflect on your own life. You get into that existentialism a little bit.

I feel like I was able to get some sort of clarity on how it looks objectively to go through something like that. I think this is primarily reflected in “Quiet.” But, I think that as being the opening track, sonically and feelings-wise, that element of grief is kind of recurring.

I think especially through the closing song, “Keep It.” And, I think it’s just all about intense ‘life things,’ like life and death. Those are the two primary themes, which you can’t help but make intense when you’re tackling it.

Was there a specific moment you could pinpoint, where you realized you wanted to create an album or was it more of a gradual thing to occur?

Kasha: We approached Forgive Me, with like a notebook and “let’s outline what this next project is gonna be.” It’s interesting because it’s short in terms of songs, but it’s still over 30 minutes.

Our manager always calls it an EP, we sometimes call it an album. I just call it “our record.” We were kind of feeling the pressure of a debut situation so it doesn’t really matter what we call this. But we definitely wanted to make a more cohesive project…cause that wasn’t really what we did with 2324.

Is there a song from that album that speaks to each of you the most? Could be in regards to its making or lyricism.

Grace: I would say from the album, “My Love” has a super special place in my heart, it was one of the first real writing sessions–when Kasha and I started playing together, and I started writing bass parts, that was a really special memory. It was kind of the first song I wrote a bass part for and went “OOH” we’re doing something here. But also, sonically, it’s one of my favorites.

Kasha: I’m gonna think about it, you go.

Gitai: I’m gonna say “Keep It.” I’m proud of how we realized that one. And, it started off at this kind of small place and the process of practicing and then recording, and then Eric mixing it– I feel like it blossomed into something kind of massive. That’s always been a really visceral song for me.

Eric: I would have to say probably, “My Love” as well. As a recording I think that it’s…umm… it’s nice. And I think it reflects the album the most. It is the song that is most different from 2324 and I think that was kind of the point with Forgive Me,

Kasha: I would say, “I Can Be Convinced” because I think the lyrics– sometimes you write lyrics and think I don’t really know if I love them but maybe someone else will. That was the case of like I really wanted to say something and wanted to say it well, and be true to myself.

I think the recording turned out special, the string sounded good; it went in a totally different direction than I thought it would when I brought it to the band. I thought it was gonna be like this slow and sad song, it’s still melancholy but turned out to be the lead single and I thought that was cool.

I’m constantly rewatching the music video for “I Can Be Convinced” and noticed some of it was recorded at the Los Angeles Union Station– What did the making of the video look like?

Gitai: Good eye. Yeah that was a fun day, we had a day where we methodically shot all these scenes with us playing and the ballerinas were there. The day that we shot the Union Station scenes were way more run-and-gun.

We basically would pull up to a location. Jump out the car, go inside and film and hope that no one stops us. They were really nice, they let us shoot there.

Kasha: I remember one of the metro workers, she came up to one of the ballerinas and said, “Oh you guys look so good can I get a picture to send to my coworker group chat,” so they were really chill.

Gitai: And Union Station is so beautiful.

Totally is.

Gitai: I think just the energy of the building really influenced the way the shots came out, obviously, but just like the way we felt too.

Kasha: To be honest, I was stressed out. It was cold that day and mildly raining, I didn’t want the cameras to get messed up. I was nervous because we were hopping on and off the subway and it turned out great, but I was just trying to keep my head in the game…

*Cue Get’cha Head in the Game from High School Musical

Kasha: Also, I’m not really built for the set life– we had already done a 12-hour day the day before and if you see the footage of us rocking out, I was doing that all day. I was tired.

Grace: It was hectic. It was a really “gorilla-feel” crew and we were just running, like Gitai said, and trying to get the shots before anyone told us to leave. And, I was so scared that Union Station was gonna be like “where’s your permit?”

But I think the fact that it was just us, the dancers, the camera—

Kasha: Just a rag-tag group.

Grace: It was just get in, get out.

Eric: It was very cold and rainy that day too.

Kasha: Yeah, that sucked cause we filmed in January of last year.

I could totally feel the energy from watching the music video and feel that people fail to notice the detail of the architecture at times.

Could you each give a word that you feel encapsulates Forgive Me,?

Gitai: Okay, I’ll go. Tenderness.

Do you want to explain why that word specifically?

Gitai: Tenderness because we have this spectrum of really, really soft and really loud. The tenderness shows up equally in both those settings.

Kasha: I would say hope because I feel like hope has negativity in it. When you’re being hopeful, you’re in a place where something needs to change or there is pain. But you feel like you can look towards the future and have that optimism or that hope, that better days will come. There’s duality.

Grace: A few different words popped into my brain…the word oceanic comes to mind. There’s high tide, there’s low tide, sometimes the waves are really calm but other times it’s like a tsunami. There is a lot of depth but sometimes…

Kasha: Salt.

Grace: Yeah, it’s salty.

Kasha: And blue! I mean, the cover is blue.

Grace: That’s true.

Gitai: The cover looks kind of oceanic.

Eric: I can’t think of a word– just listen to it. That’s what’s great about music.

Kasha: Just think of a random one! 1 2 3 go.

Eric: Eh– yeah, listen to it, if you want. Music is cool because of its sound.

Kasha: That’s a lot of words. Sound.

Eric: It’s sound. Yeah.

Any LA bands you want to give a shout-out to?

Kasha: Draag’s EP. It’s awesome. Our boys in Finnish Postcard.

Giati: punxsutawney, they just put out an EP last year that was great.

Kasha: There’s so many. Blimp. And, there’s probably lots of newer ones.

One of you mentioned new songs. New projects or singles in the works for this year?

Eric: Singles. New album.

Grace: We have a single coming out Friday!

Kasha: Tomorrow.

Eric: February 6. “571.”

Kasha: “571.” it’s a song–

Gitai: We should have released it on May 71st. So perfect.

Eric: It’ll be on streaming. We have a music video.

Kasha: First time saying this. We have another song called “Anti-sonata” coming out March 20th.

Eric: And, the composition to go along with it.

Kasha: Yeah, there’s an intro composition with a poem.

Eric: We’ll have the notated music on our website when that comes out.

Kasha: We emailed the poem on Christmas. But no one knows this information, except for you.

Can I share this..?

Kasha: Yeah!

Eric: We have another song after that, coming out. That we’ve been playing live for a while, we always close shows with it.

Kasha: People are excited about that one.

Eric: That song is very good.. And we have another song for the summer–

Kasha: Let’s save it! Let’s save this– we have songs coming and we’re kind of doing like 2324 like “I don’t fucking know, let’s just release shit again.” We’re kind of a go with the flow kind of band.

Eric: New shows, new movie coming out. We have a pop-up restaurant.

Kasha: No, we don’t!

Eric: Our own line of hot sauces.

Kasha: That would be pretty cool.

Gitai: We have a Target collab.

Grace: Oh, God.

Kasha: Maybe not Target.

Last question, anything final you want to share about yourselves to listeners, or people that don’t know of Starling yet?

Kasha: That’s a good question. Uhh… anyone?

Grace: Something I want the world to know?

Kasha: What do you want the world to know about Starling?

Grace: That we rock.

Kasha: Oh okay! Don’t put that down.

Sorry.

Gitai: Come to a show!

Kasha: Just– hmm, I don’t know. That we–mmmm.

Gitai: I love you guys.

Kasha: That I like being nice.

Eric: Be good to your neighbors.

Kasha: Be good to your neighbors.

Grace: Mmm.

Kasha: Protect your neighbors.

Grace: Mmm.

Kasha: Fuck Ice. That’s all.

I feel like what we’re doing is not that important. We’re just a band. We’re doing our best.

Eric: I think rock n’ roll has such an ability to speak for large swads of people everywhere. But at the same be a very powerful distraction from harsh realities. Things that are occurring around us right now–

Kasha: That is more important.

Eric: Yes, they’re more important, that’s for sure. Music is something that can release you from this physical realm if you let it. It’s very introspective.

Kasha: Yeah, you’re going in a deep direction right now. He’s being deep about it.

Go listen to Starling. Live, laugh, love Starling. Thank you Starling. Please have a show in SLO soon <3.

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Emilia Pirir is a writer on our Editorial Team. She conducted the interview and wrote the article. David Milan Kelly is a photographer based in Los Angeles. He took the photos. Sam Thome is our Art Director. He made the graphic.